Before
by Krikr
Summary: The life of a loving couple before the 23 October 2077. Or the pre-war fluff we should have been given but weren't. T for mention of sex, racism, homophobia, classism, bigotry and what is to be expected from 50's America.
1. A night at the bar with friends

**Seriously? Not a single review so far?! Even a simple "it's ok." would have been nice.  
Anyway, about the story:  
**

 **I felt like Fallout 4's Pre-War prologue was waay too short. I mean, unlike Fallout 3's, you don't get to know your neighbours or experience the Pre-War world, which makes it a bit hard to feel sad when it's blown up. So I tried to rectify this.**

 **Hope I did a good job of it and, since I don't know jack about baseball, I didn't describe anything.  
**

* * *

"Honey, I'm leaving for a few hours. I'm having a drink with the guys at Joseph's." Alex said, leaning into Abigail's ear and kissing her neck.  
"When do you think you'll come back?"  
"I think we'll be watching the game tonight, so probably not until three hours. You won't have any problem?" he asks, a look of worry on his face as he looks at her pregnant form.  
"Don't worry, I've got Codsworth to help me take care of the house, remember? And if anything goes wrong, he can call the hospital."  
"True. Thank God we brought it."  
"Yes. You're eating with your friends?"  
"No. Just a few pints and I'll be back by the end of the game."  
"Good. Dinner will be rice stuffed peppers."  
Alex could not resist groaning.  
"No offense against your rice peppers, Aby, but even with the low food supplies, you'd think a chicken wouldn't be too much to ask for." he mumbled.  
"Blame Mr. Hudson for that. He didn't have any when I went to the market yesterday."  
"I know, I know. Anyway, I'm off. See you in a few hours."  
"Have fun!" she shouted as the door closed.

As he walked toward the bar, Alex recognized the haircut of the man a few meters away from him and ran up to him.  
"Frank!" he shouted, tapping him on the shoulder.  
"Hi Alex! You're going to Joseph's?"  
"Where else? So, who do you think is going to win tonight?"  
"I'm keeping my opinion to myself until the bets have been taken."  
"Come on, you're not going to tell anything to your old friend?" They had fought together on the front at Anchorage and considered themselves brothers in all but blood after this.  
"Not until the betting pool is closed."  
"Even after all we've been through?"  
"Our friendship is nothing compared to the appeal of money." jokingly answered Frank.  
"You wound me. Anyway, how's the new job going?"  
"Quite nicely. In fact,..." Frank stopped as they opened the bar's door.  
"Hello guys! You're a bit early, match won't start until ten or fifteen minutes." greeted Joseph, currently filling a pint with beer.

Like more than half of the men in the bar, Joseph was a retired soldier. Unlike almost all of them, he had been retired after a mine took his left leg up to mid-tight and he had been deemed unfit for combat. Since he had often expressed the desire to open a bar after his service, the pension given to him for the loss of his leg had come at the right moment for him to do so.

"So, what is it going to be?" he asked, right hand sliding toward the glasses.  
"One glass of water for me, like usual." Frank had began drinking after returning from the front and had recently tried to kick off the habit. While most of his friends, even Joseph, had tried telling him that going to a bar to drink water while his friends would drink beer would only tempt him, he had answered that it was a better alternative than staying at home alone.  
Nevertheless, once every week, their group would meet somewhere else, like at the bowling (Jason beat them everytime but they were slowly improving).  
"Right. And you, Alex?"  
"A Nuka for now."  
"Coming."

The only sounds heard for a few seconds were the TV and Joseph filling the glasses and fetching the bottle of Nuka Cola.  
"Here. That'll be 20 dollars."  
"Let me." said Frank as Alex moved toward his wallet.  
"Girgori!" shouted Joseph, "How comes your wife isn't here?"  
Grigori had lost an eye to a chinese during the war. Settling down hadn't been easy for him and he had been reduced to begging for a few weeks until he had managed to find a job as a mechanic in a garage in the neighbourhood.  
For the past few days, Sigourney, Grigori's wife, had expressed an interest in seeing what her husband was doing with his friend. She had seemed to like hanging out with them.  
"She ain't coming. Says we guys are too obsessed with baseball and guns for her liking."  
"That's why I'll never marry." interjected Joseph, "women never get what we're like. They're always talking about boring stuff."  
"Not all of them." reacted Alex,"Some of them are quite nice. Some even like weird stu..."  
"STOP! I don't want you to talk about it. I don't even want to THINK about it!" shouted Frank.  
Alex winced.  
It had happened months ago. he and Aby had been in the park a night when they had fulfilled one of Alex's fantasies. The one about fucking in a public place. It had been a little after midnight and so they tought that nobody would see them. Unfortunately, as Frank made painfully clear the following day, he had been on a midnight stroll, having drank too much, and had seen them. At least he had the decency to not interrupt them, but still...  
"There are things I do not want to see man. My brother fucking his wife, for one." he had said.  
The game was starting.

Two hours and half later, Alex and Frank were walking down the street to their respective houses, Alex humming a song he particularly liked.  
 _"Streets are aflames, it's a mad game, makes you stop and stare,..."  
_ "I know you liked that song, but could you please not sing it everytime? I don't want it stuck in my head." asked Frank.  
" _Need an assist? You can't resist, we'll make quite a pair."_ continued Alex, a grin on his face.  
"I get it, I get it. Now stop. You know, I was thinking of buying a car."  
"Where did you get the money?"  
"Not telling yet. Anyway," they were in front of Frank's house.," see you Sunday."  
"See you."

"Aby! I'm home! Mmmm. Smells good."  
"Hm? Oh, you're early." Abigail said, lifting her head from her law book. Alex had tried to read it once. Fell asleep ten minutes in.  
"Game was shorter than expected."  
"You know, I passed in front of the park on my way home and, you know... I really liked what we..."  
"No. I'm not doing that again for a long time. Plus now it's my turn to suggest something."  
"And what?" he asked, cupping her cheek and kissing her.  
"Hmm. I'll tell you after eating. Maybe we'll try it tonight, even."  
The rice peppers seemd more appealing than ever.

* * *

 **Also, can you guess where are the names from? All but one of them should be simple enough.**


	2. Just another day

**Okay, so "Before" is going to be a series of mostly unconnected one-shots about life in Pre-War America.**

 **Just a little warning that applies to whole series: I'm basing the morals of the Pre-War America on the morals of 50's America so there will be** **racism, bigotry (i.e: disdain toward others religions that Christianism), classism (disdain toward the poors and the working class), sexism and homophobia.**

 ** _I do not embrace any of those_** **, I just think it's a fair look at what Pre-War America was.  
As an aside, I need the opinion of someone knowledgeable in economics for figuring out how much things would cost in Pre-War USA.  
**

 **With that happy note done, I would like to ask for review. In two months of writing, JannerBr and Myron23 are the only ones to have reviewed anything so far and I know there's more than two persons reading what I write. So please,** ** _please_** **, review my work. I want to know your opinion, what I coud do to make it better, what you liked, what you didn't, etc...**

 **Anyway, onward with the next one-shot.**

* * *

Grumbling, Alex reached for the multimeter in his box. Being an electrician paid well but he still didn't like the fact that he had to spend most of his days either crouching to look at some electrical junction box after moving a pile of stuff or squirm behind some furniture placed in front of it and that the owner didn't move because "it's too heavy". At the very least this junction box wasn't difficult to access. The only minor problem was that it had the fuses of the whole building and, as such, the only source of light was the flashlight mounted on his shoulder.

So he was testing each of the fuses to see which one was malfunctioning which, normally, wouldn't be too much of a problem, but the owner of the house didn't know which fuse was responsible for which part of the building was getting electricity. Even worse, only three out of seven rooms' fuses were malfunctioning: The garage, where he was, the main bedroom and the kitchen.

"Mexican morons." he grumbled. "Can't even know which ones have burned out."

"You're all right, sir?" the wife of his client was slowly walking toward him, a candle in her hands.

"Yes. I just have to find which fuse don't work."

"Can we help?"

"Yes. Can you bring me a glass of water?"

"Of course sir." she left.

So, three fuses done and all of them worked perfectly. he moved to the next one. Electricity was coursing through it without problems. So the three last fuses had to be replaced.

So... three fuses at 10$ each, plus his deplacement at 40$, plus him doing the repairs... would cost them 120$.

He reached into his bag and took out three fuses, only leaving two in it. He would have to restock soon.

The replacement was quick enough, over just in time for his client to be back with a glass of water as the light came back in the garage.

"So?" he asked, spanish accent unmistakable.

"Well, I had to replace three of your fuses. Everything should work well for a long time now." answered Alex, turning his flashlight off and proceeding to store his equipment in his toolbox, "Also, you really should note each fuse connect to which room."

"Can you do that now, sir?"

"Yes. But i'll cost you 5$ more."

"How much will it be then?"

"125 dollars. I know it's a lot, but I guarantee you, you won't have any problem with this box for at least five years."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Absolutely."

"Then do you need my help deciding which fuse do what?"

"Yes. I already know this one is for the garage, but I'll need you to go upstairs and shout me which room goes dark when I remove a fuse. Can you do it?"

"Yes."

Sure enough, the whole thing was over in less than five minutes and Alex was shortly in his car. Even if Mr. Menendez didn't seem enthusiast about parting of so much money.

As he drove to his house, Alex hummed along the song on the radio. It was Saturday, 17h pm and his day was over. He wasn't working for two days and he would soon be with his wife. It was a good day. On top of that, the Menendez had only been his third client of the day, the first two being some guy named Clarke and another named Jackson. Both had been relatively simple, yet lengthy, repairs (Clarke's house had needed to have a hole made in his wall so he could access the wires and a warning that, no matter what kind of research the retired scientist was doing, plugging too many things in one place ended badly) that had paid well.

He parked the car in the alley half an hour later.

"Hello!" he shouted when he entered his house.

"Good afternoon, sir. It seems you are quite joyful today, sir. I trust your day went well."

"Extremely well, Codsworth. I assume Aby isn't here."

"Yes sir, she left this morning and hasn't returned yet. Shall I clean the car?"

"Not today, I haven't used it much. Thanks for asking anyway. What's for dinner?"

"I haven't prepared anything, sir. Shall I?"

"No need to, we'll do it."

"Thank you, sir. Now I'll moan the lawn."

"Go for it."

Not stopping, Alex went to the basement, putting down his toolbox and his work uniform in the washing machine. with a sight, he went outside with a chair and looked at the sky trying to think about what he and Aby could do tonight. And hour or so later, he got up and decided on making spaghetti with meatballs, one of the very few dishes he could prepare with his meager talent for cooking.

"Good evening, dear!" shouted Abigail as she entered the house.

"Evening, love." before Alex could add anything however...

"You cooked?! And the house hasn't burned down yet?"

"Not this time." he answered, laughing, "Figured you'd be back late so i prepared something. I hope you like , how was your day?"

"Boring. I argued my case for thirty minutes this morning and then the jury spent the rest of the day deciding. We couldn't leave the courtroom because they could be back at any moment."

"All day?"

"Yes, all day. It got so bad we had to send someone buy food for us. And those robes made us so hot almost everyone is the room wanted to leave after and hour."

"That bad?"

"Even worse. So, if you don't mind, I'm going to shower and then we'll eat."

"Take your time. Pasta won't be ready for twenty minutes."

"Thank you Alex, you're so sweet." And she left in a hurry.

The rest of the night was spent calmly eating and both of them fell asleep as soon as they laid on their bed. Too tired to even talk.

* * *

 **I think the end is a bit meh. Anyway, what do you think of it?**


	3. Hearing

**AKA "The Dark Chapter".**

 **Sorry it's not the happy domestic fluff the previous chapters were but I really wanted to write about how much Pre-War USA _sucked_. Don't worry, the happy chapters will be coming back.**

 **Considering Fallout 3 shows black people in Vault 101, I assume Pre-War USA wasn't as racist as 50's USA regarding blacks.**

* * *

As Codsworth floated around the house, checking for anything that needed to be cleaned or picked up, his sounds receptor detected a window braking in the kitchen. Taking the broom and a dustpan from the closet, he floated to the room, ready to put the pieces of glass into the trash can. But a broken window wasn't the only thing out of the ordinary in the kitchen, there was also a man searching through the numerous drawers.

"Sir, you are currently trespassing on my masters' property, I ask you to leave this instant."

"Or what? Tell me where your owners keep their money." answered the man.

"Sir, this is my last warning, leave this house or I will engage retaliations."

The man ignored it, opening and closing drawers faster and faster, mumbling about having to find money. Without adding anything, Codsworth rushed at him, saw spinning. Too preoccupied by his search, the man didn't see the robot floating toward him until he felt it's saw spinning in his flesh.

"What?! stop! Stop! STOOOP" he shouted as the blade sunk deeper into his stomach.

The would be burglar stopped moving after a while and slumped on the floor.

Codsworth moved to the phone and called 911.

"911, Do you have an emergency?"

"No, ma'am, but I caught a man trying to burgle my Masters' house. I stopped him and immediately proceeded to call you."

"Oh. A Mr. Handy? Err, good job. Is the burglar dead?"

"Not yet but it appears he won't live for long."

"Fine. I'm sending a squad, you are to remain on the scene and wait for their arrival."

"Understood, ma'am."

Sure enough, the police arrived twenty minutes later. As two of them were hauling the corpse into their car, the other asked for his testimony.

"Simple enough, I guess. Well, thank you for your help, robot. We'll leave you there."

...

The day had been pretty hot so far and as such, the windows of the courtroom had been open the whole day. While it meant nobody in the room was sweating too much, it also meant that the sounds of the street came straight to their ears.

"Free Zaho! Free Zaho!" chanted the crowd into the street.

Massaging her ears, Abigail sighed. When the chinese had been caught, suspected of being a Chinese spy, there had been an uproar in the region as the man had been a rather popular journalist with the people. He had demanded a lawyer and she had been given the job. It didn't matter if she thought he was guilty, her job was to defend him and she would do that. Still, the crowd's shouts did not help her focus on her advocacy of the chinese. Even worse was the fact that she was standing near the open window.

Nevertheless, she tried to convince the jury of his innocence. She said that he had been an upstanding member of the community so far, that many of his articles were highly critical of his birth country, that he had no known affiliation with the Chinese army and that the letters found at his house were, according to a translator, letters to his family in China, urging them to leave the country by any mean necessary and that he had shown time and time again an inspiring loyalty to America.

As the jury deliberated, she reflect on her case. She had done her best and it bothered her that she may have had allowed a Chinese spy to walk free.

A brick flew through the only window that was still closed and crashed on the ground.

"Free Zaho or we riot!"shouted the crowd, as if that wasn't what they had been doing the whole day.

Aby sighed. She couldn't wait to be back home.

...

Grigori was lying under the car he was working on (the client wanted it repaired for the next day) when he heard footsteps at the entrance of his garage.

"Sir? Is anyone here?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm here. Wait a minute, please." he answered before putting his tools down and moving from under the vehicle and standing up.

"So, what is it?" he asked.

"Well, one of my tires burst so I want to buy you one."

"No problem. Is your car far?"

"Not really, it's in the middle of the street."

"Good, what's your tires' size?"

"Same as those." the client gestured toward the car Grigori had been working on.

"Got it. I take the tire and my tools and follow you."

The only sounds heard were the tire tolling on the ground and their steps as they walked on the blacktop. The day had been pretty quiet so far.

Sure enough, replacing the damaged tire took less than five minutes and his client had paid and was gone by five.

As he returned to the car in his garage, Grigori pondered on how he would pass the evening, if Sigourney would be up to what he had in mind.

...

Frank opened the door to his basement and flicked the lights on. Sure enough, the sound of a hundred, if not more, rats running around filled his ears.

"Calm down, I'm only taking two of you today." he said, trying to reassure them in an attempt at making their noise stop.

He really should have brought earplugs. But if he had enough money to be able to buy earplugs, he probably wouldn't have been breeding rats for the past months to sell their meat to the market. In his defence, an ex-soldier's pension wasn't enough these days and he was kind enough to sell his meat cheaper than pork or beef. That it came from rats he farmed in his basement rather than official farms wasn't something his clients had to know.

As he climbed back up, two rats in each hands, he paid closer attention to the TV, trying to catch what the reporter was saying:

"...the crowd in front of the courthouse became more and more violent until rocks were thrown into the after, police force arrived to disperse the rioters. Shots were fired, and three rioters were killed, the rest dispersing almost instantly."

"Poor kids." Frank mumbled.

He understood why the crowd was present in front of the courthouse. he understood why it had to be dispersed and why a few deads were to be expected. It did not mean he couldn't deplore the sensless loss of human lives.

* * *

 **I may have overdone it with the darkness.**

 **don't worry, the happy chapters will return.**

 **Anyway, I want to know your opinion so leave a review please.**


	4. Rain

**I experienced a shitty weather for the past few day, so here's a chapter with that in. Also, sorry again for previous "dark" chapter, I can assure you this one is much happier and I apologize for not updating this in a month.**

 **Also, since I'm severly running out of idea, this will be the next-to-last chapter of this fic.**

* * *

Rain was pouring on the roof of his car and drowning the radio. Despite him constantly turning up its volume, Alex still couldn't hear anything but the rain pounding on the roof of his car. Feeling the last traces of patience leaving him, he started drumming on the steering wheel with his fingers for a few seconds.

"Come on, move, move, move." he grumbled to the car in front of him.

With the rain, everyone drove more slowly so he had been stuck in the same street for the past fifteen minutes.

He hated rainy days.

Not only was he stuck in his car far longer than he would normally tolerate, but when he was home, he was stuck inside unless he wanted to be drench in a matter of seconds. And moving in wet clothes always disturbed him. The way they clung to his skin as if they were trying to suffocate him, the _splotch_ _splotch_ he did whenever he walked...

Eventually, he parked in front of his destination, took his toolbox and, after closing his car's door, ran as fast as he could to the house's door where he rang.

The door opened to reveal a young man.

"You are?"

"The electrician you called yesterday."

"Oh. When I saw the weather, I thought you wouldn't come."

"Well, I'm here. May I come in?"

"Of course, of course. Can I offer you a drink?"

"Something warm, please."

He entered the house, wet clothes uncomfortably clinging to him, feeling the water in his shoes with every single step. " _I don't need an umbrella."_ he had said. _"I won't be outside long enough to get wet."_ he had said.

God, he hated the rain.

* * *

They were waiting for the jury's decision and Abigail could only look at the window she was standing next to, droplets flowing down the pane.

What she wouldn't give for this to be over and be outside and feel the rain splattering on her umbrella, feeling her clothes clinging to her like they were becoming a second skin, smelling the rain...

She snapped out of it when she saw the jury coming back and her full attention was on the judgment.

"Thank you, Ma'am, if I'm free today, it's thanks to you and I don't know how I could ever repay you. I'll recommend you to my friends if they ever need a lawyer."

"That is very kind of you."

"Please, it's the least I can do."

"Well, goodbye."

"Goodbye Ma'am. May I never need you again."

This wasn't the strangest thing her clients had told her after their trial.

She stayed in front of the tribunal, under her umbrella, enjoying the feeling of the water falling around her. She even dropped it for a few seconds to feel the water splattering against her, which earned her a few weird looks.

"Madam, are you waiting for someone?" asked someone after a while, the man had stopped under her umbrella and didn't had one nor a hood.

"No, I'm enjoying the rain." was her brief answer.

Without adding anything, the man hunched over and ran to the nearest shop that would protect him from the rain.

* * *

If one were to ask Joseph's personal opinion of the rain, he would have said he tolerated it the same way he tolerated alarm clocks: he didn't particularly care for them but recognized their use and used them himself.

If you were to ask for his professional opinion on the rain however, Joseph would have told you that rainy days were amazing.

The number of clients wasn't quite as high as on another day, but the ones that were here more than made up for it by the quantity of alcohol they were drinking. One of them had passed out just a few minutes ago and Joseph had just been at his table, making sure that the man was only asleep and not dead, like it happened once in the first few months he had brought the place. Someone had been drinking glass after glass and had suddenly dropped on the table. Only when he had to close for the night had Joseph realized that the man was still there and not breathing anymore. The incident had made him much more careful of any client that seemed like he had drank too much.  
Others clients became melancholic when having a drink too much and started crying their life to anyone willing to listen. When drunk some men just became as chatty as a woman. Even if he never left his bar, Joseph would have known of anything happening in the neighborhood or at his clients' work. But he rarely told anybody about those guys' stories and if he did, he took care of changing the names enough. Two men were playing darts in a corner of the room, missing by a wide margin but laughing at everything. When they had arrived they were three, but the third was an angry drunk and a sore loser and had started swearing at everyone and everything and even tried to pick up a fight with someone who had mocked his poor aim. He was currently outside under the rain until Joseph deemed him calm enough to come back in. Another was just sitting near the radio, looking at the counter and hadn't said a word since his arrival apart from asking for a new glass once in a while. The radio was on, playing some song or another, but after tending to a bar for so long, Joseph didn't hear it anymore. From his post beneath the counter, he could see the water sliding down his windows.

It would be a good day.

* * *

One good thing about rainy days, the only good thing really if you asked him, was coming back home to somewhere dry where he could take out his soaked clothes, be warm and relax.

Alex had just exited the shower when he heard the front door opening.

"Dear, I'm home!" shouted Aby

"I'm in the bathroom. Just took a shower." he shouted back

"Did you have a good day?" she asked when he rejoined her later in the kitchen, careful to not startle her since she was holding their dinner.

"Awful, it ran. And you?"

"Wonderful, it ran."

They looked at each other for a few seconds before bursting out laughing.

* * *

 **First time I tried writing different PoV in the same chapter, was it any good? Let me know by writing a review.**


	5. Barbecue

**Here's the final chapter for this fic. I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted and that I managed to make you feel for the Sole Survivor losing their world the same thing we felt when the LoneWanderer had to leave the Vault for the first time.**

 **On this happy note, here's the final chapter!**

* * *

As he was putting their table on the grass outside, Alex briefly looked at the sky. No a single cloud wherever he looked. The weather had been nice for a beginning of September, which was part of the reason he had organized the barbecue this day.

The other reason was also why he organized it in the first place.

After putting their table at its place, Alex came back inside and went to the new room, where Aby was changing their son.

"Hey, do you know where... woah." Alex stopped in his tracks when the smell hit him, "how can something this small stink this much?"

"When was the last time you pooped in your pants?" answered his wife.

"I was ten I think. It was the first time I ever went to a zoo and a bear attacked us. Couldn't pass through the bars of course, but I have never been so scared since. Anyway, I think just our table might not be enough, so do you know if there's another I can take?"

"The kitchen table, dear." she said, not lifting her eyes from their son's diaper and adding, as she passed him his old one, "Can you throw that, please?"

"Sure."

Alex walked to the kitchen, holding the diaper with the tip of his fingers and quickly throwing it the trash can. As he exited the house once again, he turned toward his wife.

"I still think David would've been better."

"Don't complain, I wanted to name him Mike."

Shaun was the only both of them could agree on.

Setting up the tables and gathering all the chairs took a while and he had just finished setting up the grill when he heard Frank coming.

"Hello, Alex." he greeted his friend before showing the bag he was holding, "Got the steaks, where do I put them?"

"On the side of the grill, I'll cook them when everyone's here."

"Got it. By the chairs I'd say you invited a lot of people. Who's coming?"

"Well, you, Joseph, Grigori, Jason, the Harpers and the Parkers. And a few of Aby's friends from the tribunal. So we'll be approximately a dozen. You brought enough meat?"

"It'll be enough, but not by much."

"Can I see your kid?"

"I'd rather not. I want to show him to everyone at once."

"Can I help set the table, then?"

"Sure, it's almost done anyway."

Less than twenty minutes later, as Frank and Alex were discussing their favorite fictional characters (with Alex saying that, clearly, The Shroud was the best of all, angering Frank who was more a Groniak fan), they saw Joseph turn the corner of the street, four bottles of wine in his hands.

"Hello guys! Say, Frank, aren't you early?"

"Was getting pretty bored at home alone." explained Alex's friend

"And what were you discussing?" asked Joseph

"The Shroud or Groniak?"

The barman couldn't suppress his laugh.

"You know I'm not interested in any of this, right?"

"Which is why we ask you, a neutral party, to settle this debate once and for all." said Frank

"Which is why I won't give you my opinion since I don't have any."

"Come on, I need you to tell him that, objectively, The Shroud is the best." groaned Alex

After putting the bottles down, Joseph sat with them but they didn't have the time to really sart a new conversation before the other guests arrived.

As he began cooking the steaks, Alex chatted with every one of them. Miss Parker's daughter had married a few weeks ago. Mr Harper had brought a new car and, when learning Grigori was a mechanic, kept pestering him for details on how to take care of it (he wouldn't have left Grigori alone for the entire evening had his wife not intervened), Aby's friends were friendly toward everyone and the sun was setting, the plates had been emptied as had been the bottles of wine when the guests remembered their primary reason for being there.

"Alex, Abbigail, will you show us your kid or not?" asked a tipsy Miss Parker

"Oh, right! But I have to ask you to be quiet since he never saw this much people at the same time." answered Alex

"We'll do our best." assured Grigori

With that said, Alex entered the house and went to his son's bedroom. Shaun had been surprisingly calm this evening, only screaming for his paret's attention twice. Nevertheless, he picked his son with great care.

"You're goong to see a lot of people at once, okay? They won't hurt you but you'll have to remain calm, okay?" he told the toddler

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the utmost honor to present you Shaun." he announced to his guests, immediately followed by a chorus of "how cute" and "he looks just like his mother/father".

"Shaun, here's Miss Parker, Mr and Mrs Harpers, here's Grigory, Joseph and Uncle Frank. Frank, will you accept to be Shaun's godfather?" Alex asked his old friend

"Of course." was the answer, and Alex could've sworn Frank had shed a tear.

Aby did the same with her friends, who Alex didn't know very well, before asking Samantha something (he never relembered her name ) to be the kid's godmother. She accepted too.

Afterward, Shaun was passed around, everyone making guesses on what his future would be, but the party was over quickly after the sun set, everyone desiring to return to their homes.

As the last guest turned around the street with a promise to organize something similar for Thanksgiving, Aby pressed against her husband.

"And now we have to clean all of this." she gestured toward the tables

"Not tonight. Tonight we're a family and we're going to enjoy it. We'll clean tomorrow, don't worry." said Alex as he took her inside, closing the door to the night.


End file.
